Photo Day and Intrasquad

You might think with two days and no posts, that we had the weekend off, but in fact we’ve been here every day with little news to share. Everything is going well at camp and there are tons of fans right now watching the players go through the annual photo day, where are the various baseball card companies, photo agencies, etc. get a chance to get their official shots of the players.

The Dodger PR Department has made it an annual event to wake up really early on Photo Day (5:30 or so) and visit the local Cracker Barrel, which we did again today. Good eats, good company and we even found my daughter an outfit that said, "My First John Deere" with a picture of a tractor on it, so it’s been quite a morning. Plus, we found out that there’s a Cracker Barrel in Glendale, Arizona, so our annual tradition will continue even when we move spring sites.

There’s an intrasquad game today at 12 p.m. between team Koufax and team Drysdale. Here are the lineups:

This is probably the first time Mike Myers has seen his name at the starting pitcher spot in quite some time. He’s appeared in 883 big league games, which is 22nd all-time, and none as a starter. He did make 80 starts in the minor leagues in 127 games, but the last time he started a game was 1994.

Game is at Holman Stadium, so come on down if you’re in Vero.

UPDATE: Drysdale beat Koufax. John Lindsey had three hits, Chin-lung Hu had two and Brian Shackelford threw the only perfect innning. While celebratin ghis 26th birthday, Diamond Leung of the Press Enterprise blogged play by play here.

Josh,
thanks for the info on the Hollywood Walk of Fame star. I have put it in my calendar for another day off from work!

Ghosts in the Top Deck? Really? don’t know if I mention this before but that is where I have my season tix with my brother. I have become friends with other season tickets around there. we celebrate birthdays there bringing cake and singing “happy Bday. At the end of the year we had two big cakes for the workers there as a thank you. I am going to have to ask them about the ghost stories. Oh, and a friend of mine told recently when I told her about the ghost stories that itis mentioned in a Dodger baseball book.

For those that are members of AAA, checkout the Westways magazine. The article on the 50 years of L.A. Dodger memories have come out! There are 5 pages of coverage!

I like how Kent addressed the media talking about winning it all, commitment, and accountability. Here is a quote from him:

>”Gentlemen, my frustration doesn’t lie with anybody, they lie with wins and loses,” said Kent, . “You don’t win and anybody that’s not frustrated, they shouldn’t be playing the game. My frustration was not with a player or management, and therein lies the frustration.

“You hope to build on your mistakes as a player and an organization. You lean back and are complacent, anybody who’s complacent is not worth being a professional athlete.” >>

also on 2/17/08 there was an interview of Kemp by Plaschke. Here is what Kemp said

>>I do not want to be the person that everybody says, ‘Great player, bad attitude,’ ” he said. “I don’t want to be that guy.”

When Jeff Kent ripped into the young players at the end of last season, Kemp became that guy.

Kemp now has a different sort of answer to those charges.

“Jeff Kent is a leader, he is a gamer. Who wouldn’t want him on their team?” Kemp said. “He’s not a guy who says hello, but he will talk to you all day about a certain pitcher, and we’re lucky to have him.”

And about those rips?

“We didn’t make the playoffs, we were all frustrated, it was blown out of proportion, we’re all learning here,” he said.

I for one, are glad to hear from both of them that they have moved on on this issue. -emma(crzblue)

I see JP is getting some extra work in with Wills. It’s ironic that the only guys (JP& Nomar) I saw getting in extra work in before the game I saw in Denver last year are fighting for a starting job. The team may be better served with these two guys coming off the bench, but they are both gamers. Give them their due

drp – I think you go with your 5 best starters regardless of what side they throw from. If Kuo shows he’s ready and a better alternative to Schmidt or Loaiza, then you go with him. I do think Kuo makes the team though – he’s out of options, can work from the pen (though how effectively we’ll need to see) and can spot start if necessary.

With Saito, Kuo, Kuroda, Operations Director Acey Kohrogi, Traveling Secretary Scott Akasaki, Interpreter Kenji Nimura(I hope I got that right), it doesn’t look like there is any trouble as far as a language barrier. So we can put that to rest. *****I see there are 3 catchers on the active roster including Lukas May. Is that necessary? I would safely say that won’t last.***I wouldn’t worry too much about Kemp learning how to run the bases(imagine him running into Larry Bowa) and bunting just so long as he knows how to use his bat. *****After seeing a photo of John Lindsey, I’m sure they won’t mistake him for one of N.Y ex-mayors. We also have a Carlos Santana. All I can say is we sure have a lot big names.****Nomar saying the team’s inability to hit with runners in scoring position(5 for 105 at 1 point), was the biggest reason for the fall last year is the same as saying it gets dark at night because the sun goes down. But the experience we have now should help corect that. *****I called to see if I could get “Dodgers in Demand”, but channel 1 on my T.V. is N.Y.1 an all news channel. They said if it’s not listed forget it. I guess I’ll have to settle for MLB-TV. Better than nothing.

jungar posted this in Dodger Thoughts comments, but I don’t think he posted it here. Emphasis mine.

“That type of power makes him tough to pitch to,” Torre said of the 23-year-old Kemp. “And he’s got some speed. He goes after it and it’s a little intimidating to the opposing team. He’s got all the tools, it’s a matter of refining it and HE CAN ONLY DO THAT BY PLAYING.”

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